Oil Factory has signed director Steve Chase whose career credentials include a DGA Award nomination, Cannes Lions and AICP Show-honored work, and assorted Super Bowl ads. At press time, Chase was embarking on his first full-fledged job under the Oil Factory banner, a project for an undisclosed client out of Draftfcb, New York.
Chase noted that Oil Factory earlier provided support on a package of comedy spots he created and directed independently for Allen Americans, a minor league hockey team in Allen, Texas. On a shoestring budget, Chase conceptualized a grass-roots campaign that started with posters and then yielded six commercials, tapping into his long-time love of hockey and showcasing his penchant for ad humor. Though the spots haven’t formally aired yet (they are scheduled to run locally), online exposure has already generated buzz among hockey fans extending all the way to Canada.
The commercials feature actual players from the Allen Americans team in locker/training room scenarios, including a goalie who takes his lucky horseshoe seriously–and internally–another player who does some makeshift patch-up stitching of a nasty facial gash so he can get back in the game faster than having to wait for the doctor, and yet another whose broken arm is no deterrent to him jumping back on the ice. Other spots in the campaign depict fans at a local diner whose love for hockey is evident in their celebratory smiles and the way in which they consume a meal.
Chase took on the campaign while he was in-between production company affiliations, having left Rhythm+Hues Commercial Studios and before coming aboard Oil Factory. The gig came from a long-time friend and former NHL player Steve Duchesne who is part owner of the Allen Americans. The springboard for the campaign were posters based on the iconic image of a hockey player smiling with several front teeth missing. Chase got headshots of the mayor of Dallas suburb Allen and local business owners. Each photograph was then digitally manipulated to remove several front teeth. “You go to the local dry cleaner, take the owner’s picture, take out his teeth via Photoshop and give him a poster with his face on it and the caption, ‘Smile if you love hockey,'” said Chase. “Suddenly we had shops all over town with these personalized posters promoting the team.”
Looking for a home
Prior to Rhythm+Hues, Chase was repped by Curious Pictures and earlier Go Film. These stints followed a long tenure with production houses in the Partners’ family of companies, including Reactor Films and Fahrenheit. Chase said he’s been looking for a roost he could call home over the long haul much like the Partners’ companies were to him for some 20 years. He feels he’s found that place in Oil Factory given his positive experience on Allen Americans as well as his affinity for company president Billy Poveda and executive producers Jay Wakefield and Heidi Herzon.
Chase credited his friend and former Reactor, Partners and Fahrenheit colleague, rep and now industry/talent consultant Dana Astrow, with suggesting that he and Oil Factory might be simpatico. Astrow brought Chase and the folks at Oil Factory together.
Chase’s work spans a wide range of disciplines and genres, from comedy to dialogue, sports, celebs, automotive, live action, VFX, spots and branded content. His alluded to Super Bowl exploits over the years include: Bud Light’s “I Love You, Man” fare, Bud’s “Paper or Plastic” commercial in which guys strapped for cash elect to buy beer instead of toilet paper at the supermarket, ad fare for Mountain Dew, Doritos–such as “Laundromat,” which helped make Ali Landry a celebrity–and Pizza Hut with commercials that aired just prior to the Super Bowl kickoff for several years running, most notably starring the Muppets and Jessica Simpson. Chase’s DGA nomination for Best Commercial Director of 1995 came on the basis of spots for Bud Light, AT&T, Pepsi and Mountain Dew.
Among the many clients Chase has directed spots for are AFLAC, Coca-Cola, Accenture, Nissan, Molson, Dr Pepper, General Motors, Pontiac, Jeep, Coors, Xbox, Tylenol, Cadbury and Dentyne. For the latter three, Chase helmed comedy commercials for the Canadian market–Tylenol’s “Pistachio,” Cadbury Caramilk’s “Eat Fast,” and Dentyne’s “Frozen Head”–that each went on to gain inclusion in SHOOT‘s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery.
First making his mark as an agency creative, Chase transitioned to the director’s chair in his native Canada before relocating to the U.S. where he became a partner in the former Reactor Films.
